China urges U.S. companies stop arms sales to Taiwan

19:56, February 02, 2010

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday urged United States companies to stop promoting or being involved in arms sales to Taiwan, to avoid tension between the two countries.

"Some U.S. companies, which ignore the stern objections of the Chinese government and decide to sell weapons to Taiwan regardless, will face sanctions," the spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told a regular briefing in Beijing.

China has decided to halt bilateral military programs and security talks after the Obama administration gave the green light Friday to a new package of arms sales to Taiwan.

"The U.S. move posed grave danger to China's core interests and hurt bilateral ties seriously, which will inevitably affect bilateral cooperation on some major regional and international issues," Ma said.

He did not specify which issues would be affected nor what kind of sanctions China would impose.

The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday the 6.4-billion-U.S.-dollar package, in which Patriot missiles from the Lockheed Martin Corporation and 60 Black Hawk helicopters from the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation accounted for some 6 billion dollars.

"Such a move gravely contravenes the three joint communiques between China and the United States, especially the Aug. 17 Communique, and it also severely undermines China's national security and its peaceful reunification cause," Ma said.

The United States, in the Aug. 17 Communique issued in 1982, promised not to seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, and intended to gradually reduce arms sales to the island.